The Unusual Football Field.

The world’s first non-rectangular football field has been constructed in the community of khlong toei, a densely populated area of Bangkok, Thailand

The project, which includes a series of play areas, seeks to demonstrate that otherwise vacant asymmetrical spaces can be utilized for outdoor recreation.

The scheme has been developed by AP Thailand, in collaboration with CJ worx, who hope that the project will help enhance relationships among the people in the community. The ‘unusual football field’ is an unorthodox setting that redefines the boundaries of the traditional 105 by 68 meter rectangular football pitch.

The concept originated from an idea called “Think Space,” with the goal to transform a small and irregularly-shaped field into a practical football field that still allows fair play between teams. The idea questions the limits of space in order to illustrate our brand’s belief that “Space can change one’s life.”

The Unusual Football Field was developed in Khlong Toei community, a highly populated area in Bangkok which is believed to have no usable space left. However, in reality, there are numerous asymmetrical spaces scattered across this district.

AP Thailand decided to design a field for playing football, which is the most favorable sport in Thailand, in order to promote relationships among the people in the community. This unusual football field has proven that designing outside boundaries can help foster creativity used to develop these useful spaces.

The work was submitted in Cannes Advertising Festival thus year and Thailand won its first Grand Prix award ever. It won the Gran Prix in the design category.

“The vision to break the norm or what is possible with an abandoned space—it’s very clever,” said Sandra Planeta, Design Lions jury president and founder of Planeta Design in Sweden.

Planeta said she and the other jury members spent a great deal of time discussing the concept of design in the process of selecting the Grand Prix winner and really looked at the power that design has to influence culture. “The Unusual Football Field” was a perfect example, she said.

“We wanted to pick a piece that shows the best qualities of our category and what design can deliver,” Planeta added. “And that piece was touching so many points. It’s breaking the grid, it’s doing something unusual, it’s so smart, it’s simple, it’s human, it’s bold. It really contains all the ingredients we’re working with. All 20 of us [on the jury] want to go back home and create different football fields.”